Re: HP7933 - Was: newbie question -storing a file from tape to disk-

No not with software. But I remember the earthquake of 1989 almost
caused several of them to rock into holes in the computer floor. The
holes were openings where someone had lifted up floor tiles to look at
wiring - in the mpe lab...

Re: HP7933 - Was: newbie question -storing a file from tape to disk -

As we travel down memory lane............
CEs were supplied a hoist to attempt installing & servicing the upper
7933 drives.
That setup never seemed safe for anybody within 20 feet of the racked
drives.
Sleuth was fun for the Series II/III. SleuthSM (simulator) was nice for the
HP-IB systems. Those utilities that did the actuator "butterfly" test
would usually pass
through the resonant frequency of the drive to make some scary noises.

Re: HP7933 - Was: newbie question -storing a file from tape to disk -

If my memory serves me correctly, some time after the 7933 was announced and became quite popular, HP had a massive "recall" in order to change faulty heads that were causing disk crashes.

This required CE's to replace the heads on any affected 7933 at the next opportunuity - usually the next preventative maintenance call.

Now here is where my memory may be a bit fuzzier, but I seem to recall that around that time, HP announced the 7935, which was exactly the same as the 7933, but was modified to permit the user to replace the disk*pack itself.

(Perhaps the 7935 was the original and the 7933 was the one with user-replaceble disk packs.)

Re: HP7933 - Was: newbie question -storing a file from tape to disk -

On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 10:36 AM, Gilles Schipper wrote:
> If my memory serves me correctly, some time after the 7933 was announced and became
> quite popular, HP had a massive "recall" in order to change faulty heads that were causing disk
> crashes.
>
> This required CE's to replace the heads on any affected 7933 at the next opportunuity -
> usually the next preventative maintenance call.

oh yes...i remember this! bit us hard...since the army in it's
infinite wisdom had decided to award our support contract to another
company. neither tweedle-dum or tweedle-dee knew what to do. after
day two of being down, with drive guts laying all over the floor....hp
was called in (on time and materials!) and had us back up within a
couple of hours. - d

Re: HP7933 - Was: newbie question -storing a file from tape to disk -

That 7933 was a sad example of HP not living up to their sales pitch.
That drive was never
stable from when it was introduced (violent retract - exploding
actuator) until they
reached their pre-mature end of life with bad head cables. I remember
Boise Division
being chastised by CEO John Young for their failure.

donna hofmeister wrote:
>On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 10:36 AM, Gilles Schipper wrote:
>
>
>>If my memory serves me correctly, some time after the 7933 was announced and became
>>quite popular, HP had a massive "recall" in order to change faulty heads that were causing disk
>>crashes.
>>
>> This required CE's to replace the heads on any affected 7933 at the next opportunuity -
>>usually the next preventative maintenance call.
>>
>>
>
>oh yes...i remember this! bit us hard...since the army in it's
>infinite wisdom had decided to award our support contract to another
>company. neither tweedle-dum or tweedle-dee knew what to do. after
>day two of being down, with drive guts laying all over the floor....hp
>was called in (on time and materials!) and had us back up within a
>couple of hours. - d
>
>* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
>* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *
>
>
>
>

Re: HP7933 - Was: newbie question -storing a file from tape to disk -

Gilles,

The 7935 had the user-removable pack. The 7933 pack was removable as well, but the top shroud of the 7933 had to be removed first to gain access to the door-lock mechanism.

The heads of these drives had clear plastic tubes (like an air hose in an aquarium) that enclosed and protected the tiny head wires. The plastic tube would get hard/brittle over time and would eventually break. As the head mechanism went back and forth across the platters, the plastic tube was constantly getting flexed. Once the plastic tubing broke, it would start to wear away at the tiny head wires, eventually breaking them, and causing disk read/write errors. For a while, there was a shortage of replacement disk heads. HP couldn't keep up with the demand for them. I replaced hundreds of these disk heads in Texas, Louisiana, and North Carolina. This problem was found in the 792X drives as well.

If my memory serves me correctly, some time after the 7933 was announced and became quite popular, HP had a massive "recall" in order to change faulty heads that were causing disk crashes.

This required CE's to replace the heads on any affected 7933 at the next opportunuity - usually the next preventative maintenance call.

Now here is where my memory may be a bit fuzzier, but I seem to recall that around that time, HP announced the 7935, which was exactly the same as the 7933, but was modified to permit the user to replace the disk*pack itself.

(Perhaps the 7935 was the original and the 7933 was the one with user-replaceble disk packs.)

Re: HP7933 - Was: newbie question -storing a file from tape to disk -

And lest we forget, when the 7933 would come up, it would take quite a while
to get on-line. Later a new firmware version added the wonderful message
"PURGE" during that long pause. After a few CE's were yelled at, HP changed
the message to "AIRPURGE".

If my memory serves me correctly, some time after the 7933 was announced and
became quite popular, HP had a massive "recall" in order to change faulty
heads that were causing disk crashes.

This required CE's to replace the heads on any affected 7933 at the next
opportunuity - usually the next preventative maintenance call.

Now here is where my memory may be a bit fuzzier, but I seem to recall that
around that time, HP announced the 7935, which was exactly the same as the
7933, but was modified to permit the user to replace the disk*pack itself.

(Perhaps the 7935 was the original and the 7933 was the one with
user-replaceble disk packs.)

Re: HP7933 - Was: newbie question -storing a file from tape to disk -

Aren't all packs are removable? One just needs the right set of
screwdrivers and other tools?
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion
> [mailto:HP3000-L@RAVEN.UTC.EDU] On Behalf Of Steve Gray
> Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 2:08 PM
> To: HP3000-L@RAVEN.UTC.EDU
> Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] HP7933 - Was: newbie question
> -storing a file from tape to disk -
>
> Gilles,
>
> The 7935 had the user-removable pack. The 7933 pack was
> removable as well, but the top shroud of the 7933 had to be
> removed first to gain access to the door-lock mechanism.
>

Re: HP7933 - Was: newbie question -storing a file from tape to disk -

A good friend of mine talked about an HP 3000 installation (Port of Tacoma I
think) where they built an anti-vibration area for the 7933 drives in case a
ship hit the side of the locks. They used to joke that the floor was really
designed to keep the 7933 drives from vibrating the ships into the side of the
locks...

Re: HP7933 - Was: newbie question -storing a file from tape to disk -

Gilles Schipper wrote:
> Now here is where my memory may be a bit fuzzier, but I seem to
> recall that around that time, HP announced the 7935, which was
> exactly the same as the 7933, but was modified to permit the user
> to replace the disk?pack itself.

I believe the 7935 was announced first and was the original drive, but
they were unable to certify the user-removable pack feature so the
drives could not ship on time. As a result everyone got 7933s. I
don't remember for sure if the 7933 was created because of this problem
or whether they always intended to provide a non-removable pack version.

The 7933s all started out with a button (some even labeled) to open
the top, but the button wires were not connected.

HP eventualy certified the 7935s, but I think there were a lot more 33s
in the wild.

I believe the "404MB" 9793x drives may have been the first example of
a manufacturer (or at least HP) using the MB == 1,000,000 insead of
MB == 1,048,576. The reason is that the 7933 would only have been
only 385 MB with the base-2 numbering and by changing the definition
of a megabyte, marketing was able to push the drive capacity over 400MB
which sounded a lot better than 385MB.